"AFTER Pope's death, Lord Bolingbroke, in consequence of a clause in his will, had the command of his study. Among the sweepings was the following Satire, which was left unfinished by the poet. It fell, after Bolingbroke's death, into the hands of a kinsman, or friend of his, and has since, by some strange accident, strayed into Ireland. I saw it there about the year 1774, in the possession of the Rev. Dr. Wilson, senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, together with a pocket book of Parnell's, Dryden's 'Limberham' corrected by himself, Pope's Farewell to London,' and several other papers found in the same drawer."-MALONE.1 "I SHALL here present the Reader with a valuable literary curiosity. a fragment of an unpublished satire of Pope, intitled One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty; communicated to me by the kindness of the learned and worthy Dr. Wilson, formerly fellow and librarian of Trinity College, Dublin; who speaks of the fragment in the following terms: This poem I transcribed from a rough draft in Pope's own hand. He left many blanks for fear of the Argus eye of those who, if they cannot find, can fabricate treason, yet, spite of his precaution, it fell into the hands of his enemies. To the hieroglyphics, there are direct allusions, I think in some of the notes on the Dunciad. It was lent me by a grandson of Lord Chetwynd, an intimate friend of the famous Lord Bolingbroke, who gratified his curiosity by a boxful of the rubbish and sweepings of Pope's study, whose executor he was, in conjunction with Lord Marchmont.'". WARTON. This curious production, though of little poetical merit, possesses great historical interest. It shows indeed so few signs of inspiration, that at first sight the reader will be inclined to doubt whether it is really Pope's. But the history of the piece seems to place its authenticity beyond doubt, and when the verses are examined more carefully, many of them are found to be in the poet's unmistakable manner, while the hieroglyphics afford a remarkable illustration of his caution and subtle ingenuity. The poem throws a vivid light on the feelings of that portion of the anti-Ministerial party which was under the immediate influence of Bolingbroke. It was written after the secession of the greater part of the Opposition from the House of Commons in 1739, a step which had been suggested by Bolingbroke himself, and the failure of which naturally led to jealousies and divisions in the motley ranks of Walpole's enemies. The feeling against Pulteney and Carteret, which in MDCCXXXVIII. had appeared as suppressed dissatisfaction, here breaks out in vehement indignation; 1 Malone's Life, by Sir James Prior, p. 365. boundless contempt, on the other hand, being poured on the country Jacobites and semi-Jacobites, who obeyed mechanically and without enthusiasm the direction of their more ambitious leaders. The best commentary on the Satire is the letter of Bolingbroke to Marchmont of 29 July, 1739. In this Blingbroke draws his correspondent's attention to the similar situation of 1716, at which time he says the Constitution was in danger from the violence of party spirit, both on the side of the Whigs, who intended to engross all the power and profit of the State to themselves, and of the Jacobites who refused to recognize the new establishment. He then proceeds: “Quorsum hæc ?-to show you the effects of an ill-concerted Opposition, and that such an Opposition was formerly in a bad cause what you see it actually in a good one, worse for those who made it, and better for those against whom it was made, than no Opposition at all could have been; to show you how easily the foundations were laid of the tyranny of faction, under which you suffer at this hour, by Whigs factiously for the Government, by Tories factiously against it. To confirm your Lordship, if you wanted to be confirmed in that principle, that as long as the spirit of Whiggism and Toryism is kept alive by knaves and fools, the pretence of supporting the present establishment by methods destructive of our Constitution will remain, and that nothing can preserve this Constitution but an union and coalition of men of different parties on a national bottom, which few of those in the Opposition do really intend. This is the worst symptom I discover in our State's illness. Want of concert, activity and steadiness, may proceed from genius, temper, and habit; but this must proceed from a vicious principle at heart. If a man tells you that the measures you propose are absolutely necessary to save his country and yours from further ill consequences of maladministration and from the loss of liberty, but that he cannot take them or appear to take them, because they would turn to the ruin of the Whigs, must you not conclude that such and such a man considers the interest of his country in subordination to that of a party, which is the character of the rankest faction, and prefers his credit in that party to all the duties of a good citizen? All I have been saying has a desponding air, and I do not absolutely despond; the truth is I entertain very little hopes. Our patriots, for such they desire to be thought, and such I wish they were, made a declaration to the people of Britain when they made the secession, that they could do no real service to their country till the independency of Parliament was restored. This formal appeal to the people included the engagement of every man who concurred in it, to use his utmost endeavours, that this independency might be effectually restored and secured. What room will there now be to entertain the least gleam of hope, if neither a sense of public good nor of private honour can render these men true to an engagement so solemn and so important? It had been better for both not to take the step, than not to carry it forward. "To declare the independency of Parliament lost, and to sit still, is to acquiesce under the loss, to admit this real, not imaginary subversion of the British Constitution. On the event therefore of the present measure I fix my eyes. If the people will not stand by those who stand by them, or if they, who have undertaken the defence of the national cause, shrink from it, you are a subdued nation. Walpole is your tyrant to-day; and any man his Majesty pleases to name, Horace or Le Heup, may be to-morrow. In this case what can I do, my Lord, who can do so little in any other! I would contribute at any risk to save the Constitution, and to establish an administration upon national principles. But if the spirit at home rises as little, and turns as ill as I apprehend, neither I, nor you, nor any small number of men can avert the evil." In the same letter Bolingbroke announces that he is about to send Pope certain papers which he desires Marchmont, in concert with the poet, to read and arrange. This doubtless refers to the MS. of the Patriot King, and the concluding lines of this Satire suggest that it must have been written after Pope had received the Essay, and no doubt after Marchmont had shown him the letter of Bolingbroke. |